Theres not enough challenges I think.
Theres certainly ways to make it harder for yourself manually. But I think it would help if FD at some point put in some....I hesitate to call them achievements as that has bad connotations.....something...something that has no monetary gameplay benefit but ticks a little box and gives you a sense of pulling something off that was a bit special.
Just challenges for players that are genuinely hard to do. (Not merely time-taking, actually hard to do, that actually make you learn something or get better at something).
Remember Elite has a wide range of players and play styles and by its nature will be full of both new players and veterans at all times. So its hard to make a difficulty level enjoyable for all.
But optional little challenges for those that want it? That use things in the game anyway? That only need a little coding here and there to monitor what the player did? I think that would do wonders.